


Gender Roles

by KaytheJay



Series: After the End [26]
Category: Good Omens (TV)
Genre: Ineffable Husbands (Good Omens), M/M, Parent Aziraphale (Good Omens), Parent Crowley (Good Omens)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-12 15:07:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28512390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaytheJay/pseuds/KaytheJay
Summary: Eden sees Victoria's painted nails and asks his parents why only girls get to do that.
Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Series: After the End [26]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1869130
Comments: 5
Kudos: 39





	Gender Roles

**Author's Note:**

> It is the first fic of the new year, and of course it is my ineffable family. I mean I love them so why not honestly.

“Victoria! Your nails are so pretty!” Eden said having caught sight of the bright pink polish. Victoria smiled. 

“Thank you! My mom did them for me. Look aren’t they so pretty!” Victoria stuck her hand out so that Eden could get a better look at them. He smiled. 

“I wish my nails were colored like that.” Victoria giggled. 

“Boys can’t paint their nails. That’s a  _ girl’s  _ thing.” She touched Eden’s shoulder. “Tag you’re it!” She shouted as she ran off. Eden looked down to his own fingernails. Why did he have to be a girl have them colored? “Eden you’re supposed to be chasing me!” Eden looked back up to Victoria before darting after her. 

***

When Eden saw Aziraphale, he ran right up to him and hugged him. Aziraphale smiled and hugged him back. 

“Did you have a good day at school today?” Aziraphale asked. Eden nodded. 

“Me and Victoria played tag at recess!” Eden said. “And today I did math! It wasn’t even hard Mama!”

“Well that’s good to hear,” Aziraphale said. “I am glad that you had a good day today.” 

“What did you do today?” Eden asked. Aziraphale shrugged. 

“Just some cleaning and such,” he said. “Nothing as exciting as what you got to do today.” Eden nodded and ran off towards the van, where he knew his dad and the twins were waiting for him. They always were. 

“Hi!” Eden said as way of greeting. Eden crawled in the car and buckled himself in as Aziraphale got Arthur resituated. “But why can’t boys have color nails?” Eden asked. 

“Where did you hear that?” Crowley asked. 

“Victoria,” Eden replied. “She had the prettiest nails today. They were pink. She told me it was a girl thing so I couldn’t do it.” 

“Do you want to have your nails done?” Crowley asked. “We can go to the store right now and make that happen for you.” 

“But I’m not a girl!” Eden protested. “I’m a boy.” 

“That doesn’t matter,” Aziraphale said. “It’s just a form of self-expression. It isn’t limited to one gender.” 

“What’s self-expression?” Eden asked. Aziraphale thought for a moment. 

“It’s how you decide to make your outside match your inside,” Aziraphale said. “Painted nails is typically a girl’s thing, I suppose. I don’t see why that should stop you from having yours done if you want to.” 

“We’ll all get them done,” Crowley cut in. “Not the twins, they’re still too little for that. But how about we make a night out of it tonight?” Crowley asked. “We all go to the store right now and go pick out a polish each and do each other’s nails.” 

“Can we really?” Eden asked. 

“Of course we can, my dear,” Aziraphale said. “If that’s what you want to do today.” Eden jumped in his seat as well as he could with being restrained in it. Crowley took that as a yes and changed the route to be going towards a store rather than towards home. 

When they got there, Aziraphale and Crowley each picked up a twin and Eden jumped out of the car. He made sure to stand right by his parents because they’d taught him how dangerous a parking lot could be. Especially for a kid that was too short for someone who was backing out to see. Once they got inside, they grabbed a cart so that they wouldn’t have to carry the twins through the entire store. 

They wandered around the store for a while before they found what they were looking for. Neither Aziraphale or Crowley knew what the good nail polishes were, so they were just going to go off of colors. Crowley chose black. Couldn’t have anything ruining the aesthetic he had going on for him. Aziraphale picked out a very faint blue. Eden took more time to decide. There were so many different colors to pick from. How was he ever going to pick just one? Especially when he didn’t have a color he was particular about. He just liked them all. That was until he found a pink that has glitter in it. He smiled and grabbed it. He showed it to his parents who smiled at him.

“That is a fantastic choice,” Crowley said. 

“You’ll get to match your friend that way!” Aziraphale exclaimed. Eden nodded. 

“And it’s sparkly!” Eden pointed out. 

“I see that,” Aziraphale said. “I don’t think I could have picked a better color, what do you think?” He smiled over to the twins. “Your brother picked a good color didn’t he?” Aziraphale said. Agnes pulled herself up to stand. “Sit down.” Agnes smiled proudly up at Aziraphale. Aziraphale sighed. “Yes, very good job. Now sit down, we’re going to start moving and if you are standing, you are going to get hurt.” Agnes started bouncing and babbling in babbyish. Aziraphale pulled her hands off the side of the cart and forced her to sit down. She moved to stand back up again. 

“Agnes, no,” Crowley said firmly. Her smile faltered and her lip started wobbling. “Oh you poor thing, up for the dramatics are we?” Crowley said. “How about I carry you? Would that make you feel better?” Crowley reached his hands into the cart to see if Agnes would do the up thing with her arms. She didn’t. “Alright, you can sit there and pout. Your mama is only making you sit down so you don’t get hurt. We don’t want to get hurt do we?” 

“Are we quite ready to go then? Get this little party of ours started, so to speak?” Aziraphale asked. 

“I think we’re set,” Crowley replied. “Do you need anything else?” he posed the question to Eden. 

“You’re sure this isn’t a girl thing?” Eden asked. 

“With as much certainty that I know you are my son,” Crowley said. Eden smiled and nodded. 

“Let’s go!” Eden replied. 

***

Crowley drove the van home as fast as Aziraphale would let him go. He had to admit, he was quite excited by this new thing that Eden had brought up. He thought they were going to have to wait for Agnes to request it before he would be able to do it again. That was one of the things he missed about Nanny Ashtoreth. The color on her nails. 

He could have been doing it all along, he supposed, but it hadn’t occurred to him until Eden had brought up thinking that nail polish was only for girls. That was  _ not _ true, and he would be damned if he wasn’t going to prove it to Eden. 

Eden watched in fascination while Crowley painted his nails. The first time Crowley got it done, Eden accidentally messed up the polish because he didn’t realize that the paint was still going to be wet. Lucky for him, his dad was willing to redo it for him on the condition that he was going to sit still until the polish dried. 

They put on a movie, some Disney princess movie (making two gender points in one night) to pass the time for Eden while he couldn’t play because his nails were wet. Eden wasn’t focused on the movie though. He was too busy staring at his nails because it was just  _ so  _ cool that he could have his nails look like that  _ and  _ still be a boy. 

Once his own had dried, he had insisted on being the one to do both Crowley’s and Aziraphale’s nails. Seeing nothing wrong with this, they both agreed. The paint did get quite literally everywhere (Aziraphale was certain that nail polish did  _ not  _ belong on his knuckles). They sang him praises anyway, telling him he did such a good job and his artwork should be in museums all over the world. 

“Thank you, Daddy,” Eden said as he was being tucked into bed. “They’re so pretty. I like them a lot.” Crowley smiled and placed a kiss on his head. 

“You’re welcome,” Crowley said. “If anyone gives you any trouble for it, just come and tell me, alright? I’ll take care of it.” Eden nodded and closed his eyes. 

“One more story please,” Eden said through a yawn. 

“Ah, but it is time to sleep,” Crowley said. 

“But I’m not tired at all,” Eden said, having given up on keeping his eyes open. 

“Good night, I love you.” 

“Night Daddy,” Eden replied. 

***

“Victoria look!” Eden shouted as soon as he saw her. He showed her his painted nails with pride. “My daddy did them for me yesterday! We’re twins!” Victoria furrowed her eyebrows. 

“But you’re a boy,” she said. She stared at Eden’s pink nails. Eden shrugged.

“My parents say you don’t  _ have  _ to be a girl to like things,” he said. “My mama said it’s just how to make your outside match your inside.” Victoria shrugged. It made sense to her. It was only colored paint anyway. Why did you have to be a girl to have fun with your nails?

“They’re pretty!” Victoria cooed. She grabbed one of Eden’s hands to get a closer look. “Your daddy did this?” 

“Mama said that he had more practice with it,” Eden replied. “So I let him do it.” 

“I don’t think my daddy  _ could  _ do nails,” Victoria replied. “I think he’d make a mess.” 

“It is harder than it looks,” Eden said. He smiled and tapped her shoulder. “Tag you’re it,” he said before running off. 

**Author's Note:**

> Hits and kudos mean the world to me. Comments fuel me into next week.   
> Find me on Tumblr @justanangelandhisdemon and @justademonandtheirangel


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